Russian Space Station Cargo Ship Crashes in Failed Rocket Launch

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An unmanned Russian cargo ship carrying tons of supplies for
astronauts on the International Space Station crashed back to
Earth today (Aug. 24) when its rocket suffered a major
malfunction, NASA officials say.

The robotic Progress 44 cargo ship blasted off atop a Soyuz U
rocket at 9 a.m. EDT (1300 GMT) from the central Asian spaceport
of Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and was due to arrive at the
space station on Friday.

"Unfortunately, about 325 seconds into flight, shortly after the
third stage was ignited, the vehicle commanded an engine shutdown
due to an engine anomaly," NASA station program manager Mike
Suffredini told reporters today. "The vehicle impacted in the
Altai region of the Russian Federation." [ Photo
of the Progress 44 launch ]

Russia's lost cargo ship

A video
of the Progress cargo ship launch shows the vehicle soaring
into a clear blue sky. It is the second launch failure within a
week for Russia's space program, which typically launches Soyuz
rockets successfully.

Suffredini said this is the first failure of a Soyuz rocket and
Progress vehicle in the more than 10 years Russia has been
launching them to the International Space Station.

Progress 44 was packed with about 2.9 tons of food, fuel and
supplies for the space station, which is currently home to six
astronauts representing the United States, Russia and Japan.
None of the cargo items lost is irreplaceable and the station's
current crew is at no risk of running out of supplies, Suffredini
said.

"We can go several months without a resupply vehicle if that
becomes necessary," Suffredini said, adding that the orbiting lab
is stocked up to last through March 2012, when a European cargo
ship is expected to arrive.

However, how today's Soyuz rocket failure affects plans for four
more launches later this year to ferry new crews and cargo
shipments to the space station remains to be seen. Two Soyuz crew
launches and two Progress deliveries were on the launch schedule
before today's incident.

A crew-carrying
version of the Soyuz rocket, called the Soyuz FG, was due to
launch a Soyuz capsule carrying three astronauts to the space
station on Sept. 22. But that Soyuz FG rocket shares many
similarities with the Soyuz U version that failed today, so
Russian space officials must find the cause of the current
failure before any more Soyuz capsules or Progress vehicles can
fly.

"Obviously this has implications to the vehicle on orbit and the
crew as well," Suffredini said, adding that he's confident
Russian space officials will identify the cause.

NASA retired its space shuttle fleet in July and currently relies
solely on Russia to ferry astronauts and cargo to
the International Space Station. The U.S. space agency also
plans to use American-built cargo and crew-carrying vehicles once
they become available in the next few years.

The six-man crew on the station today arrived in teams of three
on a staggered schedule. One of those teams will have to return
to Earth in October on their Soyuz capsule, so NASA and its space
station partners will have to decide by then whether to partially
evacuate the orbiting lab and leave it staffed with a
three-person crew until normal launches resume, Suffredini said.

Meanwhile, Maxim Matuchen, head of the Russian Mission Control
Center, radioed the space station to relay news of the Progress
44 launch failure to the crew.

"This is it for the moment, we'll try to figure out what has
happened and what the cause was. I just wanted to keep you
informed," Matuchen said, according to a NASA translation.

"Thank you for letting us know so quickly," the station's Russian
commander Andrey Borisenko radioed back. "Thank you from the
entire crew."

Russia's
Progress spacecraft and Soyuz rockets have a long track
record of reliability. They have been hauling cargo to the
International Space Station since the first crew took up
residence in 2001.

The latest Progress vehicle to depart the space station undocked
from the orbiting lab early Tuesday to make room for the new
Progress 44 replacement.

The Progress cargo ships resemble the country's three-module
Soyuz capsules that carry cosmonauts and astronauts into orbit.
However, Progress vehicles carry a fuel pod in place of a crew
module in order to replenish the space station's supplies.

But it was the similarities that Suffredini said first came to
his mind after hearing of the launch failure.

"I know the Progress and Soyuz both use the same booster, and so
immediately started worrying about how quick we were going to
work this out," he said.

This is the second Russian spacecraft to be lost during launch in
six days.

On Aug. 18, the $300 million
Russian communications satellites Express AM4 failed to reach
the proper orbit after it blasted off atop a Proton rocket, a
different model than the booster carrying Progress 44. That
satellite was later found drifting in the wrong orbit, according
to Russian space officials.

Suffredini said he is not aware of any similarities between the
upper rocket stage that failed during the Proton launch, and
today's Soyuz booster failure. But he is confident that the cause
will be identified.

"I was disappointed that we lost the spacecraft, but frankly, I
think we'll sort this one out and we'll get to flying again,"
Suffredini said. "And we'll learn from it and move on."

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